Clothes tongs



E. K. GILDER CLOTHES TONG S Dec. 22

FiledJan. 2. 1924 mu ad Patented Dec. 22, 1925.

N T S AT E'NT OFFICE.

EUGENIE K. GILDE'R', OFHARVABD, IDAHO, Ass'renon OF oNE- ALrTo' A.;J. ,wA'Lsn, OF' POTLATCI-I, IDAHO.

CLOTHES TON'GS.

Application filed January 2, 1924. Serial N10. 683,873.

T0 all 1071 am it may concern Be it known that I, EUGENIE K. GILDER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Harvard, in Latah County and State of Idaho, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Clothes Tongs, of which the following is a specification.

My present invention relates to improvements in clothes tongs for use in laundering and clothes washing, as a convenient device for manipulating hot clothes during the washing process.

The primary object of the invention is the provision of a device of this character by means of which the wet or soaked clothing may be manipulated with convenience and facility, and when the clothes are lifted from a wash tub or washing machine by the use of the device, part of the contained water may be expressed therefrom to prevent splashing or dropping water outside the tub or machine.

The device is adapted for double use or utility in that it has tongs at one end for mani ulatin lar 'e articles of clothin and C b b,

a hook element at the other end for use in handling smaller or lighter articles of clothing, and the invention consists in certain novel combinations and arrangements of parts for carrying out these desired functions as will hereinafter be more fully set forth and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings I have illustrated one complete example of the physi cal embodiment of my invention wherein the parts are combined and arranged in accordance with the best mode I have thus far devised for the practical application of the principles of my invention.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a device embodying the features of my invention, and ready for use.

Figure 2 is a view in side elevation of the clothes tongs, showing in dotted lines the limits of movement of the pivoted parts.

The device is of the scissors type and ineludes the two shanks 1 and 2 that are pivoted together at 3. The shank 1 as disclosed is a single bar of wire of the required size and provided near one end with an offset or bend 4 out of alinement with its axial line, and this bar terminates in an eye 5 disposed in a plane transverse to the axial line of the bar. The eye is designed as a suspending means for the tongs when the latter is not in use, and affords a convenient means for hanging up the utensil for ready access when needed.

At the opposite end of the single bar or shank 1 it is fashioned with a loop 6 in the same plane as the eye 5, and this loop is provided with a perforated, spoon shaped plate 7 which is inverted, and secured by turning its edges over the loop 6 to form one member of the tongs.

The shank 2 is made up of a pair of parallel bars with an end bend 8', and the single bar of shank 1 is located between these parallel bars of the shank 2 in position to swing on the pivot pin ,3 passing through both the double bar and the single bar of the respective shanks. The bend 8 is disposed in position to snap over the shoulder 4 at the bend 4 of the single bar and rest in the bend, to lock these two shanks together when the device is not in use.

The two bars of the double shank form a space 9 between them in which the single-bar shank may be moved as indicated by dotted lines in Figure 2 for manipulating the tongs when an article is to be grasped by it.

The double bar shank 2 is fashioned with a loop 10 complementary to the loop 6, and this loop 10 also has a perforated, spoon shaped plate 11 secured at its edges thereto, the two opposed perforated plates forming a pair of clamping jaws or tongs between which the article of clothing is retained. As the tongs are compressed over the article of clothing, it will be apparent that water is squeezed out of the clothing or expressed therefrom and the water is disposed of by passing through the perforated spoon shaped plates.

Heavy or large articles of clothing may be manipulated by using the spoon shaped tongs, and for smaller or lighter articles the eye 5, which extends beyond the end of the double bar shank, may be used as a hook for engaging in these articles for suitable manipulation.

When the tongs are closed upon an article the closed shanks are grasped in the hand as handles for the tongs, and the grasp of the tongs is secured by the hand which grasps the handles in usual manner. When the hooked end of the tongs is tobe used, the shanks are grasped at the opposite end from the hook, the hand covering the pivotal consingle bar pivotedin the double bar, a bend nection 3 and the two members of the tongs in the single bar adapted to receive and re- 10 are thus held together. tain the closed bent end of the double bar Having thus fully described my invenand a suspending eye fashioned as a hook at tion, What I claim as new and desire to sethe end of the single bar.

cure by Letters Patent is In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

In a clothes tongs the combination of a double bar having a closed bent end and a EUGENIE K. GILDER. 

